My son took to Minecraft like fish to water. He started playing not long after it was first released. He would have been maybe 5 years old. Very soon he, playing as Steve, was mining and crafting very elaborate structures, portals and other contraptions. He was also fighting Creepers, Zombies, Skeletons and wolves.

I came home from work one day and he was excitedly showing me his latest work in Minecraft. I sat there and watched this elaborate machine where you drop balls and they would move and drop to some designated containers that obviously meant something. After a few minutes of watching, I asked him what does it all mean, and he replied that it’s a binary adding machine and the containers designate powers of 2 and if the ball is in the container it means 1, otherwise 0. That left me scratching my head especially because the little guy hasn’t even mastered multiplication tables yet…

Fast forward to present, he’s about 15 now and has discovered programming. He still plays Minecraft and is creating much more elaborate things using Redstone and command blocks. For the uninitiated ones, command blocks execute commands. Assembling them together allows for running multiple commands in a pre-defined order. This is analogous to executing a program. These days, however, it is more fun to play on a server with friends.

I asked him if it were possible to use command blocks and redstone to give Steve (or create some other character) artificial intelligence so that he would replicate and form societies? My son rose to the challenge but said that it would be very difficult. I said, son, if you pull this off, you can rename Steve to Adam and call yourself god…

All major religions claim that God is infinite but none of them tolerate each other. If God is really infinite then why would he/she be limited to only Jesus, Yahweh or Allah… And why male only? Infinite should encompass all that is, all that was, all that will be, all that can be imagined, and more.

In view of this, all these religions are contradicting their own teachings and therefore cannot be “true” (as they claim). Furthermore, they teach love but only for the faithful. God only loves the followers of such and such. Isn’t that hypocritical?

Can someone correct me if I’m wrong? Can someone tell me if there is a religion that is not based on dogmas and contradictions? One that does not incite fear and/or hate? One that does not divide humanity and is based on love? I’d like to know, but somehow I think this might be a pie in the sky…

…“Good night, Frog,” and gave him a little kiss on the top of his head.

In an instant, the frog vanished, and in his place was a handsome man.

“Who are you?” said the princess, stepping back. “What have you done with my frog?” For by now, the princess loved the little frog, warts and all.

“I am your frog,” said the man. “I am also a prince. I was enchanted by a wicked fairy and turned into a frog. Only the kiss of a beautiful princess could break the enchantment.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?” said the princess.

“Because,” said the prince, “you had to do it of your own free will.”…

Didn’t we love fairy tales when we were kids? Stories like that have been told in folklore for centuries and finally put down to paper by brothers Grimm. Have you ever wondered about them? Is this a pure figment of imagination, or is there more to it?

Well, the belief in Karma is somewhat similar. It goes that you will reap what you saw and you can reincarnate in conditions according to how good or bad you’ve been in previous lifetime. I know, this is a gross simplification, but will do for the purpose of this article. If you’ve been particularly bad, you could devolve into an animal incarnation. Then you’ll have to take a step back and learn to love and be loved in order to come back to human level.

Could it be possible that whoever came up with the Frog Prince fable was familiar with the concept of Karma? In times when church exercised the ultimate power and all other beliefs were forbidden, the only way to propagate them would be as fables and fairy tales…

I have always wandered what it would be like to be like superman – fly through the air, be super strong, have x-ray vision and laser eyes…

But enough dreaming, let’s get back to reality. For me, the definition of superhuman would be to take the most intelligent and talented person on the planet, combine with a champion in every sports discipline and you’d have somone as close to be super human as possible. Now, theoretically possible but in practice not very likely to happen. Human lifespan is not enough to dedicate to more than one or two interests and master them to world-class level. Furthermore, it would also take someone with an immune system able to withstand the onslaught of all the nasty viruses and bacteria plaguing our society, as well as avoid all the modern lifestyle diseases. Oh, and let’s not forget the looks 🙂

Anyway, the sedentary lifestyle, terrible diet, stress, electronic equipment and other radiation all take toll on our bodies and diminish our health, lifespan, intelligence and energy. This puts us further and further away from the ideal. Again, it would be impossible to focus on every aspect of life and try to correct it. However, there is one thing you can do to have very tangible benefits.

By avoiding sugar (sucrose), or more specifically fructose, in the diet, you will gain better health, more energy and therefore sports performace, even more brains. Yes, you will be smarter for longer, or should I say, keep your wits till the old age. According to Dr Mercola, Alzheimers is directly linked to the blood sugar levels. Of course, not just sugar but all carbohydrates contribute to this, and especially grains. Sugar also causes some inflamation in the body which in turn destroys cells faster and speeds up aging.

So do yourself a favor and cut the sugar from your diet. Your body does not need it. You can go one step further and avoid the grains as well. Your body, and brain, will thank you for it for years to come.

If you wish to get some inspiration, you can read about my year-long adventure without sugar here.

Nothing is ever new. Nothing changes. Except the names. All the creativity is put into renaming something that already exists, repackaging it and selling it as something different. This applies especially to the new age movement. And it is so disappointing.

Just look at some examples. Alpha mind system, brain entrainment therapy, etc. They all are based on the sound frequencies.
Furthermore, The Quantum Mind, Quantum Jumping, The Secret, Law of Attraction, Advanced Law of Attraction (how advanced do you need to get?), Manifest Your Desires, etc. Again nothing new in any of them.

Let’s face it, people knew and understood these things for millenia. Probably better than these days. However, there’s always someone that will come up with a different name for old stuff and will try to make a fortune. Look, I’m not saying it’s always bad. No, sometimes it is what is needed for some people. Have you ever noticed how you can be told something and not understand it, or not take notice, but the same thing told by someone else will strike a chord?

Anyway, back to the topic. What about diet? Now someone has coined a term “paleolithic diet” for something that people did naturally. They knew instinctively what to put in their mouths. But guess what? If you write a book and call it “Eat naturally” you would not get anyone reading it. But when you call it “Paleolithic diet” (or other obscure term) it raises people’s curosity and they buy the book.

What about technology? Same thing applies. Agile methodolody is nothing but common sense repackaged and given fancy buzzword names. Apparently there are ancient drawings and symbols representing flying (and other ) machines. There are probably many more examples. And don’t let me start on religion…

The whole point of this article is to raise awareness. You do not need to spend money on something that sounds exotic because you probably already know it.

I’ve been asking myself this question for a long time now. All these gurus talk about being in the Present. You know, Eckhart Tolle, Anthony Robbins, Robert Anthony and even Buddhism. They say that in order to be healthy and happy you have to fully embrace the present moment.

Some people live in the past. That means they constantly think of the good (or bad) times they had when they were younger. It also means that they hold on to grudges for longer. In other words, the present is not good enough and future non-existent for them. They can’t be ever happy unless they go back in time.

Others meanwhile, live for the future. Some of them always seem cheerful and expectant of some good thing happening soon. That soon may never come but they are still happy. They don’t dwell on the past and may not learn from their mistakes. On the other end of this scale there are also some future-living people that constantly worry about the future. They try to foresee every obstacle (most are never even encountered) and can’t get to sleep because of worry that they may have missed something. These people can’t be happy either. They live in fear.

So the gurus say that you have to live in the present. Past is gone and there’s not much you can do about it. Future has many possible paths and there’s no guarantee that the one you’re on is the one you chose.

Now, let’s take a look at the Present. But what is that elusive Present?

My definition is that the Present is where Past meets the Future. It is this tiny little fleeting point in time. In fact it is so tiny that it doesn’t really exist. Think about it. Right now. By the time you’ve thought about it it’s already moved on into the past. In fact, by the time you decide to think about it, it’s gone. You just can’t pinpoint it. How long does it last? A second, millisecond, microsecond? No, it just doesn’t last at all.

So it logically follows that the Present does not exist. It’s an illusion. Therefore, how can you live in the present if there is no such thing? It’s only Past and Future.

Or maybe, and that’s a worrying maybe, it’s the other way around. Maybe there’s no past and no future just everlasting Now. Maybe it’s all in our minds. A trick that our minds play on us.

What we put energy in (belive) grows. It grows in the other dimension – dimension of thought, astral plane or whatever. Hence if we constantly believe in something, that something will get stronger. At some stage, if enough people belive in it, it may actually cross the boundaries between dimensions, and have influence on the material dimension. Just look at the extent of the fanaticism some people will go to. All because they believe in something.

So, it looks like people knew of this phenomenon for some time now. Furthermore, investigating ancient mythology, gods need our belief, or energy. This was certainly true in ancient Greek culture where people were under the impression that gods’ power diminished when people stopped believing in them. Also, in Kabbalah, god needs us as much as we need him/her.

Back to my original question, did god make us, or did we make up a god? By imagining some being and feeding it energy (our belief, worship, contemplation etc) we made it real (in a sense). To answer the question, we are both one and the same – we can’t separate ourselves from god. We just got ourselves lost in this game, and forgot where we come from. A good game is one that makes you think it’s real, an ultimate illusion, and this one certainly fits the bill.

Everything on earth is made up of molecules that in turn are made up of atoms, or elements. The nuclear reaction inside the core of a star burns hydrogen to produce some heavier versions of hydrogen, then helium. It is a complicated process and takes the whole life cycle of the star to produce even heavier elements. For example, lithium is produced in brown dwarfs and carbon takes place in a set of nuclear fusion reactions inside massive stars.

Our bodies are made up from the same elements. It is not wrong to think that stars made the basic building blocks of our bodies. Then, a master craftsman arranged them in a special way that the elements function together for some purpose, just like in Minecraft you can craft staff from other elements. Now the master craftsman and his like can inhabit the bodies to play the game.

However, let’s not forget where we come from. The Sun is our closest star. The Sun gives life to all living creatures on earth including us. Without it, nothing would be alive. Think about it. Plants and other creatures like phytoplankton, rely on the sunlight for the photosynthesis process to make them grow. These plants make or become food for animals, and humans. Animals are also food for other animals that are higher up in the food chain – this includes humans who consider themselves right on top of the food chain. Looking back through the food chain, we are still “eating” sunlight, or depending on it for life.

So the Sun not only gave us the bodies, but also nourishes and sustains them. Without sunlight, our bodies would not make vitamin D. The Sun could be a highly intelligent and altruistic entity. It does not discriminate about who gets its life-giving energy. It shines on good and evil without judgement. The ancients were not wrong by worshiping the Sun.

Having said that, I now realise that it was not just the ancients. I have been born and raised as a Catholic but have been worshiping the Sun all my life. So are billions of others, without even realising it. Every time they pray and say Amen at the end they give worship to the Egyptian sun-god Amun, which was also sometimes spelled Amen.

As you can see, you’re not just a mortal human. You’re made of the same stuff as the planet earth and made by the stars. I’m sure the ancients knew all this…